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Published Jul 29, 2023 • Last updated 37 minutes ago • 2 minute read
Mitchel Bortolon, a student public health inspector, is shown in this 2018 file photo taking a water sample from Lake Huron at Canatara Beach as part of Lambton Public Health’s beach water sampling program. File photo/Postmedia Network Photo by File photo /Paul Morden/The Observer
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Local MPPs recently announced the Ontario government will invest $6 million to support 30 multi-year projects aimed at helping protect, conserve and restore the Great Lakes.
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The investments are aimed at reducing plastic litter, excess nutrients and road salt entering lakes, rivers and streams, and advancing climate resiliency while restoring environmentally degraded areas of the Great Lakes.
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The project areas include the southeast shores of Lake Huron, Eastern Georgian Bay and Huron-Bruce.
“This group of projects around the Lake Huron-Georgian Bay basin will help to enhance water quality and aquatic habitats, restore streams and a wetland, increase biodiversity, remove plastic waste and engage local First Nation communities to improve the ecosystem health of the Great Lakes, said Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Rick Byers in a media release.
The projects are led by community groups, not-for-profits, conservation authorities, universities, Indigenous organizations and communities across the province. The projects also support commitments in the Canada-Ontario Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality and Ecosystem Health and Ontario’s Great Lakes Strategy.
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The province is partnering with the Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association on local projects and investing $474,500.
“Given the significant agriculture industry in Huron and Bruce Counties, a resilient agriculture and food industry has a direct correlation to the health of our Great Lakes,” said Lisa Thompson, Minister of Agricultural, Food and Rural Affairs. “Today’s announcement is another positive step in advancing best practices that support the goals outlined in Ontario’s Great Lakes Strategy. We are taking a multi-ministry approach to positioning Ontario as ‘best in class’ when it comes to good stewardship and healthy ecosystem associated with our Great Lakes.”
Funding for the Great Lakes Program is part of the Ontario government’s $14 million in annual investments to further protect, conserve and restore the health of the Great Lakes and support the well-being of communities that rely on them, the media release said.
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Ontario’s Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River shoreline is the longest freshwater coastline in the world measuring 10,000 kilometres, which is greater than the length of the Canada-U.S. border and almost equivalent to travelling one-quarter of the way around the world.
Ninety-nine per cent of Ontarians live in the Great Lakes Basin and 95 per cent of Ontario’s agricultural lands are in the Great Lakes Basin.
Areas of Concern are geographic locations in the Great Lakes identified in the mid-1980s because human activities had severely degraded water quality and ecosystem health in those specific areas.
Included in Ontario’s Great Lakes Strategy is restoring 14 Areas of Concern, restoring over 74,000 acres of wetlands, and expanding the Grey Lakes Waterfront Trail to now stretch over 3,600 kilometres and connect 155 communities.
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